"I hope to get the _Ice King_ ready by the middle of February or first of March," was the hunter's reply. "You see, for such a trip we require an immense amount of stores, and of just the proper kinds. It won't do to take stuff that will freeze and burst open. Once I remember I was up there, and had some bottles of catsup along. The bottles froze and burst, and we had catsup scattered all over the camp." "I suppose you can't get much up there?" said Chet. "Absolutely nothing outside of game--musk oxen, polar bears and hares, seal, walrus, and some birds. In some parts of Greenland you can get moss that you can put in soup, but it doesn't amount to a very hearty meal. In a cold climate like that, one needs to eat plenty of meat, and the more fat, the better. The Esquimaux live on the fattest kind of meat they can get, and on blubber, and they think tallow candles a real delicacy." "Excuse me from eating candles," said Andy. "If you were real hungry, you'd eat anything," answered Barwell Dawson, gravely. "I was once lost on the ice, and was glad enough to chew strips of seal hide to ease the pangs of hunger. When I got back to camp, my stomach was in such a condition that they fed me my first meal very carefully, just a bit at a time. If I had eaten my fill quickly, I might have died." CHAPTER XII A LETTER OF INTEREST "The place looks shut up," observed Chet, when the party came in sight of the Graham homestead. "Not a bit of smoke, and the snow isn't cleared away from the doorstep." "Maybe Uncle Si is sick and can't get around," answered Andy, quickly. "Sick? Lazy, you mean," returned his chum. They advanced to the front door and knocked. There was no sound from within, and Andy walked around to the shed. The door was locked, but the key was on a shelf near by, and he quickly opened the door. "Uncle Si is away," he announced, as he walked through the cabin, and let the others come in. "My! but it's cold here! We'll have to start a fire right away." "I'll do that," answered Chet. "You sit down and rest that sore ankle," he went on, to Barwell Dawson, and the hunter was glad to do as bidden. While Chet started a lively blaze in the big open fireplace, Andy went through the cabin, looking for some trace of his uncle. Much to his surprise, he found Josiah Graham's traveling bag missing, and also all of the man's clothing. "He has gone away!" he cried, and then caught sight of a letter, pinned fast to the top of a chest of drawers. The outside of the letter was addressed to Andy Graham. The communication was written in lead pencil, in a chirography anything but elegant, and ran as follows: